Ad Disclosure
The Phillies Found Another Braindead Way of Losing to the Dodgers
By Nick Piccone
Published:
We all remember October. Kerk on the mound in Los Angeles. The Throw. We remember.
While that was certainly laden with more pressure than a regular season game on July 21st, the Phillies decided to even up this current three-game series against the Dodgers by taking part in another humiliating loss to them, this time at Citizens Bank Park.
Brandon Marsh came up to bat in the bottom of the ninth with J.T. Realmuto on second base after piss-missiling a double down the line, which allowed Justin Crawford to get to third. One out. Down 2-1. It felt like the Phils were gonna do it. They were gonna pull it off. Marsh was going to break out of his slump and send the fans home happy.
BUT –
How it sounded with Gregg Murphy and Larry Andersen on 94WIP:
Listen to how excited Dodgers TV was to witness another Phillies disasterclass:
There really are no words… but I’m going to try. Realmuto, for some reason, thought Crawford had a good chance to get back to third base. But the reward of heading back to second because you think Crawford is going to have a shot to get back to third is negligible when even if Crawford did get back safely, you were most certainly a dead duck to make the second out either way. Why even chance it? It’s just… crazy. Notwithstanding Marsh’s silly little cue shot that stunned Crawford enough to not break on contact, but wait until the ball was almost in Max Muncy’s glove before running towards home plate. Crawford will probably learn the best idea was to stay put after he hesitated, but aggressive baseball can sometimes breed mistakes and the Phillies were obviously hoping that’d happen there. It didn’t. It wound up being maybe the most embarrassing ending to a game in the entire league this season (hey, I’m leaving this game with something).
After the game, interim manager Don Mattingly said he didn’t know what Realmuto was thinking.
“I don’t know what J.T. was thinking there, honestly. He got to third, it’s really what you, with contact on, is hoping Craw stays in it long enough to get Marsh to second, and you end up in the same spot. Yeah, I’m not quite sure what he’s thinking. I don’t know if he thought Craw was gonna get back, or if they were gonna let him get back. But it’s something we’ll talk about.”
I know it might be unfair at this point, but I have not been a big fan of Mattingly’s decisions lately. Bullpen usage, the same boneheaded mistakes that we thought might get cleaned up when Thomson was fired remain, and the team might have actually a lower collective baseball IQ. I don’t know what it is. It’s not all on Mattingly, obviously. But we’ve seen this stuff for years. And generally they’re good enough to not let games like this snowball. But that was bad. Really bad. They had a win in their sights. And a series win at that.
It’s just old. How are we supposed to take them seriously when they won’t take themselves seriously?
The only thing we can do it wait until the next game. And hope they win. Because with the Braves and Marlins continuing to scuffle, this was a prime opportunity to make up some ground. Who knows, maybe the baseball IQ will increase on Wednesday.
Nick Piccone has covered Philly sports and events for over 15 years with various outlets, including PhillyVoice.com and PhillyInfluencer.com. In 2015, he co-launched the Straight Shooters Podcast, focused on covering the professional wrestling industry. He was a producer at Fox Sports Radio Philadelphia and currently produces broadcast and social media content for the Villanova Sports Radio Network. He grew up in South Philadelphia and South Jersey, and is a graduate of Neumann University. Contact: picconenick@gmail.com